Page 13 of Craze

I can take the zap.

I can take the zap.

I’ve endured it plenty of times. But the thought doesn’t ease the pain anticipation that threatens to hold me back.

So I thrust myself between the guard and one of the few friends I have left. The crackling nodes bite into my chest. The force behind the guard’s baton shoves me into Shavih.

Electricity floods my body. I arch as every muscle tenses and know Shavih’s getting the residual sting.

Time slows to a crawl.

Bolts like strings of lightning zigzag across my vision and crackle in my skull.

Readouts promptly scroll open in pale teal frames, giving me full access to the ship's basic computer systems. I don’t know what will shut the guns off without them being quickly restarted except for one command. I experienced it near the end of the war just after I was captured with several other women. And it’s the only one with my Standard Security Access.

My splay has the power it wants. Now it’s my turn.

Pellucid Command: Ice Shields Up. Brace for impact.

Ravenger III: Ice Shields Initiating—

Shields lift, dimming the light of the sun through our window. Guns shut off. Engines reverse thrust to slow us.

It will be several minutes before the ice shield scanners confirm space is safe, another couple to restart weapons.

I was connected to Sevrin’s torture chair when we went through the belt of frozen coolant crystals between Saturn IIIand Escepiter when rogue bounty hunters attacked the ship. I remember it well and hope my effort is enough.

The fire in my chest grows then dies. The guard’s baton smokes and burns out.

Time speeds up.

Poppy’s ship disappears through the portal without losing anymore Titans.

The guard drops me, looking surprised. He touches his earcom and hurries out of the room, slamming the door behind us.

Shavih catches me when my knees give out.I guess I took enough of the shock that she’s okay.

The other women chatter about the shields and wonder where the ice is. She whispers in my ear. “What the fuck did you just do?”

I glance back at her and strain to catch my breath after the full-body seizure.

She snaps something behind me, but I’m too tired to address it.

“I can’t really say thank you enough, except for this.” Shavih clips a small item into the back of my skull. “Been stashing this extra capacitor for a long time. It’s got piezoelectric converters that will turn movement into power. It will charge up on its own. That way you can have power to do whatever the fuck it is that you just did whenever you feel like it.”

“Nothing.” I say. “You got that?”

“Navi—”

“I’m not telling you shit. I don’t want to risk them probing your head like they do mine.” I touch the tender spot on my sternum from the shock. “If they discover that capacitor, we’re all fucked. They will tear this place apart until someone confesses. Everyone will suffer. It better be damn good and hidden, or just take it out.”

Shavih slumps, checks the vacant doorway, and then messes around a little more in the back of my skull. It clicks and thumps as she works. I close my eyes and pretend the noises are normal so they don’t make me gag.

“And I don’t know for sure if it was me or the splay,” I admit.

When she’s done, she hugs me against her as we sit in the corner of the group cell. “It isn’t visible now. And thanks. I didn’t have one more shock in me today. They don’t power us up like they do you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

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